Fame and fashion make for fickle friends. Try saying that 10 times fast.

Tongue twister aside, the relationship between fashion and celebrity is a complicated one. More than ever, individuals and the media require constant drama and instant gratification.

Nothing demonstrates this obsession with spectacle and novelty better than NBC’s new show, ‘Fashion Star.’ The show, which premiered March 13, showcases the work of amateur designers. The twist is that buyers from Macy’s, Saks Fifth Avenue and H&M offer money to the designers whose clothes they want to sell. Miraculously, the winning garments are available for purchase the next morning.

‘It’s just the Home Shopping Network working the pole in Vegas,’ said fashion writer Maureen O’Connorabout the show in a March 14 Gawker article.

O’Connor’s summation is harsh, but the show does cater to some of our society’s worst inclinations while also undercutting the work of more serious and more talented designers.

For starters, the show’s ‘mentors’ – Jessica Simpson, John Varvatos and Nicole Richie -perpetuate the notion that celebrities are automatically fashion experts. Varvatos is a successful and respected designer, but the ladies are not fashion critics with expert taste.

‘I love the sequins, and I would wear it right now,’ was one of Simpson’s comments in the pilot. How insightful.

Perhaps it is snobbish of me to bash the show when I’m just as likely to shop at H&M or Macy’s as the next college student. It’s not that I consider only expensive, designer clothes to be worthwhile – if I did, I’d have one suit and no money. But the show’s contestants showed nothing I would consider innovative. I object to the show making a spectacle of boring clothes while more creative, tasteful and pioneering designers struggle to succeed.

The fact that the clothes are available for purchase the next day also caters to consumerist tendencies. It suggests that fast money is more important to fashion than creativity.

Reality television can be debated for hours, but for a lucky few, the fame of winning a show launches a serious career. Christian Siriano, who won the fourth season of ‘Project Runway,’ is now a successful fashion designer with his own label.

But in spite of his clothes appearing in magazines like Marie Claire, Siriano’s reality show reputation left some critics skeptical. Style.com’s Meenal Mistry questioned his popularity in a September 2010 article: ‘It would be nice to see him shore up the goodwill and fame with clothes that can stand on their own.’

Siriano is a designer who became famous, but famous people who become designers also struggle. For example, Kanye West debuted his collection in Paris last October. Despite avidly studying fashion for a number of years, West designed heavy and ill-fitting clothes, and he showcased an unusual addition of fur in his spring collection.

Still, the fashion world seems to be willing to give West a chance. Big names in the industry, like Anna Wintour, continue to attend his shows. What sets West apart, it seems, is his awareness of his place in the fashion world.

‘The biggest hurdle I had to face is the celebrity designer or the hip-hop designer concept,’ West told Tim Blanks in an October 2011 review for Style.com.

The pitfalls of the celebrity designer concept were painfully obvious when Lindsay Lohan co-designed a collection for Ungaro in 2009. Her debut fashion show – in which many models wore sparkly, heart-shaped nipple pasties – was disastrous.

But on the other hand, the Olsen twins have managed to not only shed their tabloid-fodder image, but also establish an award-winning fashion label, The Row.

Fame is a complex creature, especially in the fashion world. At worst, it gives credibility to people who don’t deserve it and produces profit-driven, pseudo-creative shows like ‘Fashion Star.’ On the other hand, celebrity status can give promising designers like Siriano and West the chance to grow and succeed in a tough business.

I can only hope that success comes to those who deserve it and that in the long run talent trumps hype.

Ian Simon-Curry is a sophomore public relations major. His column appears occasionally. He tries not to look a mess, but he is not above wearing sweatpants to the dining hall. Follow him on Twitter at @incrediblyian. He can be reached at insimonc@syr.edu.

Published on March 18, 2012 at 12:00 pm

Contact Ian: insimonc@syr.edu